Student affairs is a very unique area when it comes to professional behaviors in the work setting. As a graduate student I am also in a unique space between student and professional which can be difficult to balance. As far as professional behaviors go, these have been, and probably will continue to be, my main concerns.
When I first started my assistantship, I was told that my dress code was simply, “don’t look like an undergrad”. When I asked for clarification my supervisor said that this mean to sweatpants or sweatshirts at work. This was very surprising to me, but I know this is not indicative of work attire across student affairs, or even across the various assistantships held by the members of my cohort. Still, this ‘dress code’ says a lot about the somewhat casual nature of student affairs. The experiences which inspired me to enter student affairs as an undergraduate at Albright College, occurred in a very professional office. The two student affairs professionals wore suits each day, emails were expected to be without error, and every phone call or open interaction, even with other office staff, was expected to be conducted in the utmost professional manner. So far in my further professional experiences I have not encountered anything that extreme. In fact, in other student affairs offices on my undergraduate campus the behavior was not that professional either.
Personally, I believe that a more casual vibe encourages students to utilize those resources more often and more extensively. One of my concerns with that, because of my first experience, is that some people are too casual and not professional enough. This is a balance I constantly look to create in working with my students, especially in their student group, and even more because of how close in age we really are. In my internship I think that my supervisor, Talia, has done an excellent job of creating a professional but relaxed work relationship for us. Meeting are always organized and planned, but there is also time for us to check in socially. While I am not in the office much at this time, I know that in a few weeks I will be in order to be part of LEAP staff meetings and then later with the LEAPers (students participating in LEAP) to help administer the program assessment. Due to the modeling of Talia, I feel confident that I will be able to strike that balance between professional and casual in those interactions. Each interaction, in different offices, different jobs, different institutions, all demand different levels of professionalism. This is a skill that I think I have been developing and which is going to be very valuable to me as I continue in this career.
Despite my concern over student interactions in the ‘too professional office’, I am grateful almost daily for learning so many lessons about professionalism. I rarely, if ever, have to worry about an email being too casual, or how to converse with my superiors because I know that I am more than proficient with those skills. With that experience I have also learned to address inappropriate behaviors, which I have fortunately not experienced much of at Penn State. Upon reflection though, I realize that this may be another symptom of my experience with professional behavior. I can set appropriate boundaries and quickly (and without noticing) steer unprofessional behaviors out of a relationship or situation. This is again particularly useful since I am currently so close in age to the students with whom I work.
I have heard people say that student affairs professionals do what they do because they want to be in college forever. This may be true, because my own motivation is that I want to help create the type of supportive environment I had in college for future students by supporting them in whatever ways they may need. I want to recreate my amazing (though atypical) college experience for current students. Clearly this is not me saying I want to be a college student forever, which is why it is so important to display professional behaviors to my students and in my office now and in the future.
When I first started my assistantship, I was told that my dress code was simply, “don’t look like an undergrad”. When I asked for clarification my supervisor said that this mean to sweatpants or sweatshirts at work. This was very surprising to me, but I know this is not indicative of work attire across student affairs, or even across the various assistantships held by the members of my cohort. Still, this ‘dress code’ says a lot about the somewhat casual nature of student affairs. The experiences which inspired me to enter student affairs as an undergraduate at Albright College, occurred in a very professional office. The two student affairs professionals wore suits each day, emails were expected to be without error, and every phone call or open interaction, even with other office staff, was expected to be conducted in the utmost professional manner. So far in my further professional experiences I have not encountered anything that extreme. In fact, in other student affairs offices on my undergraduate campus the behavior was not that professional either.
Personally, I believe that a more casual vibe encourages students to utilize those resources more often and more extensively. One of my concerns with that, because of my first experience, is that some people are too casual and not professional enough. This is a balance I constantly look to create in working with my students, especially in their student group, and even more because of how close in age we really are. In my internship I think that my supervisor, Talia, has done an excellent job of creating a professional but relaxed work relationship for us. Meeting are always organized and planned, but there is also time for us to check in socially. While I am not in the office much at this time, I know that in a few weeks I will be in order to be part of LEAP staff meetings and then later with the LEAPers (students participating in LEAP) to help administer the program assessment. Due to the modeling of Talia, I feel confident that I will be able to strike that balance between professional and casual in those interactions. Each interaction, in different offices, different jobs, different institutions, all demand different levels of professionalism. This is a skill that I think I have been developing and which is going to be very valuable to me as I continue in this career.
Despite my concern over student interactions in the ‘too professional office’, I am grateful almost daily for learning so many lessons about professionalism. I rarely, if ever, have to worry about an email being too casual, or how to converse with my superiors because I know that I am more than proficient with those skills. With that experience I have also learned to address inappropriate behaviors, which I have fortunately not experienced much of at Penn State. Upon reflection though, I realize that this may be another symptom of my experience with professional behavior. I can set appropriate boundaries and quickly (and without noticing) steer unprofessional behaviors out of a relationship or situation. This is again particularly useful since I am currently so close in age to the students with whom I work.
I have heard people say that student affairs professionals do what they do because they want to be in college forever. This may be true, because my own motivation is that I want to help create the type of supportive environment I had in college for future students by supporting them in whatever ways they may need. I want to recreate my amazing (though atypical) college experience for current students. Clearly this is not me saying I want to be a college student forever, which is why it is so important to display professional behaviors to my students and in my office now and in the future.